


Knowing

by acuteneurosis



Series: Caught in the Act [2]
Category: Skip Beat!
Genre: Because who else would be?, Guilt, Haunting, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Lory is the devil, Pandora's Box, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 13:16:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17345897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acuteneurosis/pseuds/acuteneurosis
Summary: He made a mistake, and now it's haunting him.





	Knowing

**Author's Note:**

> Vol 1 Inside Cover

Sho shivered as he walked along the path. He hated visiting his parents' summer home in general and had hated it in particular since he had discovered the place was haunted. For the past several years he had heard the soft, quiet weeping of a child late at night when everyone was supposed to be asleep. During the day, it was cheerful humming that followed him everywhere.

Or maybe it was all just in his head. It could just be guilt.

It was probably guilt.

He shook off the feeling of being followed and tried to focus on his destination. His parents guarded the door downstairs by placing their room between him and it. They were both light sleepers, especially his mother, and would tear him to pieces if they knew he was sneaking out. Thankfully, years of practice and a window made this little adventure possible.

He wondered why his parents bothered. It was a new age and people did not think about relationships and intimacy the same way. Besides, what was there to do out here other than find pretty girls to kiss and cuddle?

" _I'm so sorry…"_

The voice was so soft he thought he had imagined it, but he froze in his tracks. Like the weeping and the humming, it was hauntingly familiar. And made him freeze with guilt. He strained his ears to see if he could hear any other sounds, but nothing else reached him.

Okay, maybe he should _not_ be going to hook up with a girl. It was probably cruel, and stupid. And he was probably being haunted.

Of course, this particular ghost was not likely to follow him and watch as he indulged in a little fling. Maybe going was the best thing he could do for himself. He kept moving through the trees and finally found the road. A little way down the street was the local girl he had hooked up with that afternoon. She gave him a smile and he sauntered with all the pride and experience of his nineteen years to her side, sliding an arm around her waist.

"Shall we?"

* * *

_He knew he was dreaming. The girl beside him would never have teased him like this in real life. Kyoko had been the only girl he had honored with the title "girlfriend," and she had been the only girl who had never been close enough to him to deserve it._

_Well, maybe that depended on the kind of close._

_In his dream she was wearing an outfit much more stylish than anything she had worn in real life. It was a v-neck sleeveless blouse with a tiny flower print. A circular pendant hung from her neck and her hair was the modern auburn tone it had been the last time he had seen her. He had wondered, after her death, if she had been trying to get his attention. It seemed like the most likely explanation for a girl as simple as her to change her look so much._

_Here, in this dream space, she leaned in towards him, her gold eyes glinting, her smile a little too knowing to belong on the face of the girl he had known. Her hand rested softly on his arm._

" _Hello Sho." It was not a purr, it was a caress. Suddenly, she was a nightmare. Nothing about her changed, but Sho had been sure, always so sure, that his Kyoko would be constant. That she would never be like those other girls. The ones he had cheated on her with._

_Oh, the irony._

" _Hey Kyoko."_

" _She's really pretty, isn't she?" Kyoko asked, looking behind him. Sho turned and saw the girl he had gone to meet standing in front of the counter of the store he had met her at. "Exactly your type."_

_Her tone conveyed it all. The condemnation and amusement as she took in the bust, waist, and legs that would have called to him. Somehow, he was sickened by them now._

" _She's just another girl," he retorted, fighting to keep the guilt off of his face. Kyoko's smile made him wonder if he had succeeded._

" _You need to wake up, Sho. You need to go home."_

* * *

Sho bolted awake in the darkness. In just a few minutes he was dressed and gone, running for the woods. He did not have to check his watch to know that he was pushing his luck. His parents were early risers and he could see the first touch of light peeping over the horizon.

" _Not that way,"_ a chilly voice corrected as he tried to remember which way to turn at his large, ivy covered rock place marker. Sho spun and froze, staring in horror at the specter in front of him. Kyoko was still smiling that knowing smile. She had a little treasure chest in her hands. Something about that box made Sho shiver. _"Silly, you shouldn't sneak out if you can't get back."_

"Look, Kyoko, I'm-"

" _Sorry? No Sho, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't good enough. I'm sorry I was so selfish. I'm sorry I couldn't live without you."_

"Well, umm. Look, it's no big deal." Her grin broadened.

_"Of course it isn't."_

"I didn't mean it like that," he mumbled, adjusting his clothing.

_"You don't mean most of the things you say."_ This was getting to close to the truth for his comfort.

"What are you doing here?"

" _I sold my soul,"_ she told him calmly. _"Straight to the devil."_ She paused and cocked her head. _"He isn't what you'd think. He likes cosplay."_

"He what?"

" _Loves cosplay. Costuming. He doesn't like making bargains very much either. He didn't want me to give you this."_ She held out the box. _"But it's the only way I can rest, Sho. The only way."_

Sho looked at the box and shivered as the lid crept open. A white glow seemed to surround Kyoko. Her smile was almost sweet, but there was an edge to it. An implacability that made him wince. Still, he owed this to her, right? He owed her the right to be at rest.

Something writhed in the box and he took a step back.

"No way," he told her, shaking his head. And then he ran.

He climbed in his window and stumbled as he saw his mother already there, tapping her foot against the floor. Behind her stood that ghostly Kyoko, smiling with that little box, a trail of black poking at his mother.

"And where," she demanded in a flat tone, "have you been?" Sho flinched as Kyoko smiled, and started a rather garbled explanation.

* * *

"Enough is enough," his father said coldly. "You've been causing nothing but trouble. You have no idea what responsibility is. You want to live your own life, fine. Leave this house."

"Look, I didn't mean to get fired. It wasn't my fault-"

"You said that last time," his father cut him off. "And a dozen times before that." He paused. The ghost behind him leaned over his shoulder and whispered something in his ear. "You said that when Kyoko died."

Sho stiffened as the girl smiled. "I'm leaving."

There was a brief flurry of packing and some stiff instructions as to how he could find a place of his own to live in. Before he walked out the door his father handed him an envelope, which Sho noted Kyoko was frowning at.

"It will be enough for your first month's rent, if you're smart. Get a job." Looked like ghosts could not ruin everything.

"Yes, sir."

* * *

"She's a pretty little thing," Reino said, stroking some air beside him. Sho tried to ignore it, but he did look back as Reino's head snapped to the side, a bright red mark forming on his cheek. His grin turned hungry. "She's feisty."

Sho responded with a phrase that his mother would have whipped him for using.

Silence descended again as Sho tried to play his guitar without being distracted. Being a street performer had the disadvantage of not being able to throw out members of the audience that were distasteful. And Reino was just plain creepy.

"She wants to give you something," the taller, prettier male stated. Sho kept his eyes on his strings, pretending not to notice the shimmering image hovering in the corner of his eye.

"Should I take it?" he asked, cursing internally as he did. He had not meant to encourage the idiot.

Reino laughed. "No. No you shouldn't. 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,' and this woman came back from hell to give you her scorn."

"What is it?"

"A grudge. Well, more like a legion of grudges."

Sho shuddered. "Whatever. You're making that up."

"She'll get you someday."

"Whatever."

* * *

The music helped. When his songs were honest, she seemed to calm down, and his voice was so haunting that people would gather for hours to listen to him. But in between, it was a nightmare. His landlord hated him. The women in his life were there one minute and gone without explanation the next. And she was always there, nearby. Offering that one escape.

* * *

_He was dreaming. A glowing girl with a box, holding it out to him, ivy curling around her, her smile just a little too knowing. His hand reached out to take the box, to make her leave… If she'd just leave, maybe he could sleep. He'd take the box and sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep. He lifted the lid open and stuck his hand in._

Everything went black.


End file.
